Pastor David Horner Sermon Archive
Sermon: August 29, 2010
“How Ought Christians to Live?”
Luke 12: 13 – 21/Hebrews 13: 1 - 9
Sunday, August 29, 2010
It is now almost the very end of August. Many of us have finished vacations and have put off the lightened work loads of Summer. We have returned to our ordinary daily lives. For some of us that means increased work schedules. For others it means a return to certain social schedules and activities. But as we embark once again on what we consider our normal lives, I want us to take just a few minutes to make certain that our Normal Lives are Christian lives.
I assume that all of us here have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We all believe that He is the Son of God and that His Death and Resurrection paid for our sins and gave us eternal life. We believe that our Faith in Him is the channel through which his forgiveness and that eternal life has come to us. So as we stand or sit in this place of Worship, we are certain of our salvation into the next life, the eternal life.
But we are still living this life, right here in the bustling suburbs of West Lafayette. How should the assurance of God’s forgiveness and the promise of Eternal life change and affect our current lives? What would we describe as the or a Christian life? What qualities should it have? What should we be doing in and with this life for God as we wait for the days of our deaths and resurrections?
These are not a difficult things for a reader of the Bible to discover. God has written in his word several descriptions of what the Christian life should be like. Some of these dwell on specific characteristics, like the parable about greed that we find in our first lesson. Others contain lists of qualities or duties as does our second lesson from the 13th chapter of Hebrews. Now before we begin to look at this list, I want you to understand that there are other lists of qualities of the Christian life that give aspects not listed here, so this list is not all-inclusive.
Having established that, let’s take a look at what is listed here.
The first thing that is listed here is a little difficult to understand in our New Revised Standard Version. In it we read “Let mutual love continue”. That sounds a little bit romantic. But before we go into the mutuality of being in love and the anguish of unrequited love, let’s see what another translation says. The NIV translation of verse 1 reads “Keep on loving each other as brothers”. That is a much better translation, not only because it gets us out of that romantic mutuality, but because it much more accurately reflects the Greek words that form the original verse.
There is a member of this congregation who gets upset when I say uncomplimentary things about the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So today I am going to say something complimentary about that great city. It has a beautiful name. Not only is it a beautiful name “Philadelphia”, it is a biblical name. There was in the days of the Apostles a city named Philadelphia in what is now Turkey. But the word Philadelphia is more than just the name of a city in the Bible. It was used to describe one of he qualities of the Christian life. The Greek word Philadelphia means Brotherly Love. The Quaker William Penn gave that name to the first city in his commonwealth because he wanted that Quaker and Christian Characteristic to be practiced there and to be a trademark of that city. And I must say, that at times it has been.
The Greek word Philadelphia is used in this first verse. According to the Greek wording the verse should be translated “Let brotherly love continue”. Philadelphia or brotherly love refers to the honor and dignity and respect and caring that all people, especially Christians should have for each other.
And contrary to the NRSV wording, Brotherly love does not have to be mutual. It should be, but the fact that my brother does not love me does not lessen my responsibility to love him. I am to respect him, and care for and about him.
Christians are to be those who are known to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. They are to care for and about other Christians. In the time and place in which this letter was written, welcoming visiting Christians into the homes of other Christians was important because commercial Inns were often places of doubtful repute.
Verse two is also not translated as well as it could be. In the Greek copies of the Epistle, there is a connection in the wording of verses 1 and 2. As I have already mentioned, verse 1 contains the word Philadelphia which means love for a brother. In verse 2 where the NRSV has the words Hospitality to strangers, the Greek has the word Philaxenia. You might be able to figure out the meaning of this word if I tell you that the word xenia occurs in our anglicized word xenophobia, which means fear of strangers or fear of people who are not like oneself.
So in the first verse the author exhorts Christians to love their Christian brothers and sisters and in the second verse he tells them to not neglect loving strangers. It seems that as the word Philaxenia became more commonly used, it often specified hosting and welcoming strangers. But I think that the intention of the verse is that we are to love, care for, welcome, and open our homes to our Christian Brothers and sisters as well as to those who are strangers to us.
Verse 3 adds others whom for whom Christians are to care. Those who are in prison and those who are being tortured. These categories obviously refer foremost to Christians who in those days and in our own time have been imprisoned because of their faith. My dear brother Leonard periodically sends me e-mails that inform about certain Christian pastors and other Christian leaders in China who have been arrested and tortured because they are Christian leaders. Other sources inform me of Christians in Muslim nations who are abducted, imprisoned, tortured, or worse. We need to keep those people in our hearts and minds and pray for them and speak out for them and do whatever we can to help them.
But in the light of what Jesus said about his coming to free those in prison, I do not think that the care for prisoners by Christians is limited to prisoners who are Christians or Christian leaders. We are to be concerned about and minister to prisoners of all types. Many have been won to Christ while they were in prison. There are 4 people I know of connected to this congregation who regularly visit prisons and prisoners. If you have the opportunity to visit or help a person in prison, remember the verses in the bible that instruct Christians to care for prisoners.
In verse 4 Christians are encouraged to honor marriage and to keep the marriage bed undefiled. This is a hot topic in our time because lifting up the biblical pattern of marriage would not include extending the title of marriage to same sex couples. Neither would it include the casual view of divorce that many in our time have. Christians are to value opposite sex marriages and to urge people to refrain from sexual behaviors that are only to be exercised within the bounds of marriage.
Verses 5&6 deal with the topic addressed by Jesus in our first lesson; Greed and the dependence on Material goods. We are not to be in love with money or possessions and we are to be generally content with what we have. We are to depend on God to help us and to provide for us.
There is a progression in verses 7,8&9. Christians are to remember those who spoke to them about Jesus. They are to imitate their lifestyles and continue to follow the doctrines they taught. Neither Christ nor proper doctrines change. New and strange teachings about Christ and or His Church are to be rejected. There are many of these in our time including the offshoot of inclusiveness that states that all religions are avenues to reach God. Jesus himself declared that He was the only way to the Father. Anyone who teaches otherwise is a deceiver.
In the time in which this letter was written, regulations and rituals involving food were substituted for or added to the proper doctrines of salvation. In our time the additions to and replacements for proper Christian doctrines are other things and ideas, but they are still not needed nor to be desired.
So, as we get back to our normal daily routines and lives, what should be a part of them? Love for Christian brothers and sisters. Love and welcome for strangers. A desire to help those who are imprisoned and tortured. A reverence for Marriage and a concern for proper sexual conduct, especially within ourselves. A dependence on God and a lack infatuation with money and possessions. And a reverence for our Christian leaders and the doctrines they taught us. All of these are to be a part of our daily lives as Christians.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
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